Rae Armantrout

Veil

The doll told me
to exist.

It said, "Hypnotize yourself."

It said time would be
transfixed.

*

Now the optimist

sees an oak
shiver

and a girl whiz by
on a bicycle

with a sense of pleasurable
suspense.

She budgets herself
with leafy

prestidigitation.

I too
am a segmentalist.

*

But I've dropped
more than an armful

of groceries or books

downstairs
into a train station.

An acquaintance says
she colors her hair

so people will help her
when this happens.

To refute her argument
I must wake up

and remember my hair's
already dyed.

*

As a mentalist
I must suffer

lapses

then repeat myself
in a blind trial.

I must write
punchlines only I
can hear

and only after
I've passed on

---

Rae Armantrout's books of poetry include Necromance, Made to Seem, and The Pretext, all published by Sun & Moon. Her prose memoir, True, was published by Atelos in 1998. She teaches writing at the University of California, San Diego. contents | previous | next